{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry474.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry474.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry474.htm","text":"The plain with bleeding limbs was spread,\n And heaps of dying and of dead.\n His mighty bow still R\u00e1ma strained,\n And shafts upon the giants rained.\n Still Angad and Sugr\u00edva, wrought\n To fury, for the V\u00e1nars fought.\n Crushed with huge rocks through chest and side\n Mahodar, Mah\u00e1p\u00e1rs'va died,\n And Vin\u00fap\u00e1ksha stained with gore\n Dropped on the plain to rise no more.\n When R\u00e1van saw the three o'erthrown\n He cried aloud in furious tone:\n 'Urge, urge the car, my charioteer.\n The haughty V\u00e1nars' death is near.\n This very day shall end our griefs\n For leaguered town and slaughtered chiefs.\n R\u00e1ma the tree whose lovely fruit\n Is S\u00edt\u00e1, shall this arm uproot,--\n Whose branches with protecting shade\n Are V\u00e1nar lords who lend him aid.'\n Thus cried the king: the welkin rang\n As forth the eager coursers sprang,\n And earth beneath the chariot shook\n With flowery grove and hill and brook.\n Fast rained his shafts: where'er he sped\n The conquered V\u00e1nars fell or fled,\n On rolled the car in swift career\n Till Raghu's noble sons were near.\n Then R\u00e1ma looked upon the foe\n And strained and tried his sounding bow.\n Till earth and all the region rang\n Re-echoing to the awful clang.\n His bow the younger chieftain bent.\n And shaft on shaft at R\u00e1van sent.\n He shot: but R\u00e1van little recked;\n Each arrow with his own he checked,\n And headless, baffled of its aim,\n To earth the harmless missile came;\n And Lakshman stayed his arm o'erpowered\n By the thick darts the giant showered.\n Fierce waxed the fight and fiercer yet,\n For R\u00e1van now and R\u00e1ma met,\n And each on other poured amain\n The tempest of his arrowy rain.\n While all the sky above was dark\n With missles speeding to their mark\n Like clouds, with flashing lightning twined\n About them, hurried by the wind.\n Not fiercer was the wondrous fight\n When Vritra fell by Indra's might.\n All arts off war each foeman knew,\n And trained alike, his bowstring drew.\n Red-eyed with fury Lank\u00e1's king\n Pressed his huge fingers on the string,\n And fixed in R\u00e1ma's brows a flight\n Of arrows winged with matchless flight.\n \n \n Still Raghu's son endured, and bore\n That crown of shafts though wounded sore.\n O'er a dire dart a spell he spoke\n With mystic power to aid the stroke.\n In vain upon the foe it smote\n Rebounding from the steelproof coat.\n The giant armed his bow anew,\n And wondrous weapons hissed and flew,\n Terrific, deadly, swift of flight,\n Beaked like the vulture and the kite,\n Or bearing heads of fearful make,\n Of lion, tiger, wolf and snake.\u00a01\n Then R\u00e1ma, troubled by the storm\n Of flying darts in every form\n Shot by an arm that naught could tire,\n Launched at the foe his dart of fire,\n Which, sacred to the Lord of Flame,\n Burnt and consumed where'er it came.\n And many a blazing shaft beside\n The hero to his string applied.\n With fiery course of dazzling hue\n Swift to the mark each missile flew,\n Some flashing like a shooting star,\n Some as the tongues of lightning are;\n One like a brilliant plant, one\n In splendour like the morning sun.\n Where'er the shafts of R\u00e1ma burned\n The giant's darts were foiled and turned.\n Far into space his weapons fled,\n But as they flew struck thousands dead.","title":"BOOK VI: Canto C.: Ravan In The Field.","type":"page"}